What Charlottesville should have taught us

Third of three parts

By UYLESS BLACK

Special to The Press

We Americans must continue to honor the rule of law. Aspects of this idea include not ramming a crowd with a car and killing a person, or bludgeoning a political opponent with a bat. Yet, that is what happened in Charlottesville.

A Tin Cup of Oppression

A few years ago, I made a trip to Eastern Europe, a place with histories of almost uninterrupted plunder and killing. I now keep on my desk a replica of the tin cups used by prisoners in the Budapest House of Terror, a place where Stalin and his minions maimed the minds and lives of many people.

The cup reminds me of the stories I heard about the countless war-related sufferings that have occurred in the countries I have visited, some ancient and some recent. It also reminds me of the good fortune I have had to be born in a country that has largely escaped the repeated carnages and police states experienced in many parts of the world.

While watching news on television, with coverage about the discontent of many American citizens about America, I take solace by looking at this cup. I also wish American malcontents would occasionally pause and reflect on just how good they have it.

Certainly, we have profound problems in America. Many of our prisons are disgraces. So are the denials of speedy trials, the perversions of plea bargaining, anti-republican gerrymandering, and the huge number of incarceration rates. The socially vacuous financial instruments of Wall Street discredit the idea of meritorious free enterprise. As well, torture does take place in some of our prisons.

But we work continuously to solve or at least remedy these problems. In some countries that I have visited, oppressive prisons, denial of trials and outright torture are systemic to their culture. As one person put it: “America’s practice of politics may stink, but it smells better than most countries’s.”

I add another observation. In a Fortune magazine article (April 1975), Max Ways said, “Democracy is like a raft: You never sink, but damn it, your feet are always in the water.”

Ignorance Is No Excuse

We have a core of individuals in this country who are ignorant of the blessings bestowed on them by being born in America. We also have a cadre of people who, if given the opportunity, want to physically assault anyone with whom they disagree.

America’s malcontents should consider the two quotes above before they take to the streets or expose their ignorance on social media. They should work on fixing America’s problems and not make them worse by their infantile confrontations.

I offer some advice to those who engage in protests that physically harm others and others’ way of making a living: In the long run, continued riots, such as those in Charlottesville, will not gain your cause anything. As in most parts of the world, it will result in the curtailment of your rights to express yourself. Martial law tends to dampen free expression.

The Museum Solution

I also offer a compromise between the pro and anti statue protesters: Do not destroy the statues. Rather, move them to a museum. There, additional markers can describe the history of the statue itself, as well as the good or evil attributes of the person sitting on a horse or standing on top of a column. In this manner, history is not compromised or destroyed. It is amplified.

For now, all Americans should be aware that destroying a statue is not going to destroy the past. But by its destruction, we risk destroying our future. America’s experience with slavery will forever be an ignominious page in our history books. We can help keep that page open and in our memories by keeping monuments safe from destruction by single-sided ideologues.

The violent agitators in Charlottesville need to read-up on their history, which will require going to sources other than Facebook or Twitter. In this study, they will come across a truth that spans across any nation’s creeds: If you do not honor the rule of law and stay within a framework of order, the state will impose its interpretation of the rule of law on you. You will not like the outcome of the state’s interpretation of order.

Self-expression and protest is part of America’s legacy and its greatness. It is essential to our political health and societal well-being, but not if this self-expression endangers others or leads to destruction of property.

The way of assertive yet non-violent expression has proven to be effective. As case studies, see Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and Mahatma Gandhi.